Murder in the Fleet

Between the 1921 Washington Naval Conference (which effectively limited the international arms race for over a decade) and the start of the crank up before World War II, the U.S. Navy co-operated with Hollywood studios on a regular basis providing locations and facilities for dozens of major and minor films showing off the country's ships (both sea and air) and service men to keep them in the minds of the general population as the admirals fought for ever constricting budgets with an isolationist minded Congress. Also well worth checking out are THE FLYING FLEET and HERE COMES THE NAVY (in which feuding Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien serve everywhere from the Arizona to the airship Macon - both to meet famous ends in later years).

MURDER IN THE FLEET may be among the least of these info-tainment efforts, but from the golden age of the classic murder mystery, it offers an enjoyable, more or less workable plot, an "about to be 'A List'" cast and some fascinating shots of actual elements of the U.S. fleet (the entire film is set on the USS Carolina aside from a few studio interiors and includes a number of exteriors of the ship under way including the actual crew).

Of special interest may be Key Luke's fleeting appearance as an aide to an ambassador/suspect from a (renamed to avoid "offence," but made-up to leave no doubt) fictionalized Japanese Empire. Someone might do a fun afternoon's mini-film festival of "Key Luke Afloat" with this, the 1936 ANYTHING GOES (Luke played one of a pair of gambling "Chinamen" on a civilian Atlantic crossing with Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby - a role somewhat reduced from the Broadway original) and (a year later) in his most famous role as Charlie Chan's "Number One Son" in CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS where Luke travels to Europe (these were the Berlin Olympics where Jesse Owens won Gold to Hitler's great displeasure and film clips of that race are included in the movie) by ship with the U.S. Olympic Team (he's competing as a relay swimmer)while his "Pop" rushes over on The Hindenberg.

The biggest "special effect" in MURDER IN THE FLEET is probably the flooding of a powder magazine with the film's hero in it - tame stuff by modern standards, but pretty exciting as played nonetheless. The film's McGuffin, the scientific equipment being installed on the Carolina, is pretty much science fiction (though finally, 70 years later, becoming less so), and as shown in action in the film it looks a bit silly, but it was good enough for its day, and in the spirit of the style of the film it doesn't distract.

Minor, but fun. Worth a look.

Robert Taylor after a few loan outs and small parts got his career launched in this entertaining film about some murders done on a naval vessel. Someone will stop at nothing to see that the Navy does not carry out some tests of a new naval gun.

Frank W. Wead who was the subject of John Ford's Wings of Eagles wrote this story and while there's no threat to Agatha Christie posed by Wead, still it is a most entertaining story.

There are enough red herrings in this story to be a catch for a whole fishing trip. One of the better suspects was Mischa Auer, made up as an Oriental, to play the part of a visiting Asian dignitary. No names mentioned, but he looks very suspiciously like one of the Japanese diplomats photographed at places like the London Naval Disarmament Conference. I think Spig Wead was trying to tell us something there.

We've also got a reporter who can't file his story, an industrialist trying to bribe Taylor, his girlfriend who wants Taylor to leave the Navy, and a few more. When you reach the end it won't be who you might have thought.

Murder in the Fleet was a B picture, running only 70 minutes. Very soon Taylor would be an A list star. With those looks, how could he miss?

The plot is ordinary, but the movie has snappy dialogue, excellent as opposed to wooden acting, good direction and a great cast, including Robert Taylor, Ward Bond, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt, and Nat Pendleton. It pulls off the comedy part very well. I always like 30s movies because of the witty dialogue and fast-paced, sly insults. Watch it for that if not for the story. It's the combination of acting and dialogue that shines. Many comedies of this or any other era just don't pull it off. The quality of filming is also very good. Look for other familiar faces among the actors. You can see them while they're relatively young.

This film, made in 1935, is a true reflection of the time. There was something for everyone in this picture: patriotism, a bit if romance and romantic comedy (Una Merkel) and some slap stick. All of the actors performered well and you do find yourself wondering "who done it". OK, I could have done without so much slapstick but I recently saw a film with Crawford and Gable that had The Three Stooges! Robert Taylor, only, 24 years old at the time, was very fine, as always. He made many pictures in 1935, at the time when the studios could roll them out like hot cakes. Some, like Camille, are very famous. He was not in these films only bc he looked good. A number of other commenters here heavily panned RT. For those folks, please remember that what you see on the screen is not the persona of RT but the character he is portraying. This was not an Oscar worthy PART but he does it with such great ease you have no idea he is acting. Part of what made him so exciting on the screen was his extraordinary good looks BUT it is his acting that is the most important. Had he been a total dud in Camille, he would not have continued to have an acting career of more than 30 years....maturing as an actor as he aged, prematurely dying at age 57.

This movie makes me wonder anew how it was that Robert Taylor became such a star. It has to be his looks as his screen persona is, to me, always bland. That said, I'm glad I saw this movie. I found the best part to be the verbal sparring between Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy. Although I recognized many in the cast (especially fun seeing Keye Luke and Ward Bond), I missed reading the opening credits and quite frankly did not recognize Ted Healy and even had I seen his name, I would not have recalled the Three Stooges connection. I remember thinking during the movie "Gee, this guy is really good." So my favorite part of the movie is the one another reviewer found most annoying. Una Merkel as Toots was good but too overtly grasping and Jean Parker was inadequate to the task. I liked Parker in the Kitty O'Day movies but not in this one. The mystery itself is uninspired and basically uninteresting – the culprit was unexpected but logical.